Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe scored during their comfortable victory against Newcastle United yesterday.
Pepe scored during Arsenal’s 4-0 victory over Newcastle yesterday, with the Ivorian finishing well after Bukayo Saka cut the ball back for him.
It was Pepe’s defensive work towards the end which really impressed Arteta though.
The Arsenal summer signing tracked back even when his side were in a comfortable lead, which was a big improvement from the start of the season, when Pepe could be guilty of slacking off at times.
And Arteta said that he is hoping to see more consistency of performance from Pepe now, as he starts to adapt to his role at the Emirates Stadium.
He said: “Hopefully, we just need consistency from him. For wide players and talented players up front in this league it isn’t easy because this is the most difficult thing to do – to create things – but (there are) certain things with Nico that he needs to maintain game by game.
“He knows that, he’s trying, the way he applied himself defensively as well in a few moments was top drawer – things that he wasn’t doing in the past – and when he does that, after the rewards in the other box come and he made the difference today.”
It is fair to say that Pepe hasn’t had the impact at Arsenal that many were hoping when they paid such a big fee for him.
However, the skilful attacker has still shown flashes of quality, and there is a feeling that next season he really could start to make an impact on the Premier League.
Arsenal’s win over Newcastle has pushed them up to 10th place in the Premier League table.
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